Stories from the world of sports have their own magical way of offering inspiration. And when there is a series of stories of iconic moments documenting the efforts of Indian sportspersons over time, the audience pays riveting attention, what with the story of each athlete or team offering deep insights into the pursuit of excellence.
In presenting We Are The Champions, Akshay and Vijay Lokapally have commendably stitched together a rich tapestry of 40 engaging stories. Together, they have ensured that their choice of iconic moments is not forgotten. They have given fans and researchers alike a book to pick up on a rainy day or when they want to find some inspiration.
The stories range from 1948 to 2024, from Hockey to Cricket, from Athletics to Wrestling, from Badminton to Weightlifting, from Olympic Games to Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, from World Championships to Grand Slam Tennis tournaments and include nearly a dozen women achievers as well as a couple of Paralympic Games stars.
The father and son duo of Vijay and Akshay Lokapally have showcased its shared passion for Indian sport, picking out many obvious moments produced by the athletes and some that would have been tucked away beneath the cobwebs of time. Their meticulous research, attention to detail and passion for storytelling comes through in the 40 chapters.
It has been one of my pet grouses that Indian sports writers of earlier eras have not left much for posterity. Of course, they wrote wonderful reports for newspapers and magazines but a vast majority of their work, including reports, features and interviews, have been lost to time – and to the penchant of each family to dispose of old newspapers for want of space.
The other such effort that springs to mind was by Digvijay Singhdeo and Amit Bose who put together stories of 50 leading athletes in My Olympic Journey, published in 2016. The father-son duo’s second collaborative book has captured some iconic stories from Indian cricket. Just as well since the sport hold the collective imagination of people for longer durations that Olympic sport.
The constant thought through the reading of We Are The Champions is that this will make a wonderful gift to give to aspiring sportspersons and those seeking inspiration from real-life stories of sporting achievers who have done India proud. Admittedly, it is easy for reviewers, especially those in the same domain, to get let personal bias creep in when critiquing a book.
I dare say I made sure that such bias was left behind. Having said that, I do hope that when the authors go for the second edition, they will consider including chapters on Indian Cricket team’s amazing Test wins against the West Indies in Port-of-Spain in 1976 and Australia in Perth in 2008 as well as a chapter on cricket icon Virat Kohli, the first superstar in the times of social media.
Besides, they can ponder chapters on Billiards legend Wilson Jones, independent India’s first World Champion in any discipline and Dr. Karni Singh who gave India its first Shooting medal in a World Championships. The efforts of sprinter Kamaljit Sandhu who was the first Indian woman to win an Asian Games gold and weightlifter K Malleswari, the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal, also merit consideration.
It is likely that the authors decided against including pieces on wrestler Sushil Kumar, the first Indian individual athlete to win medals in two Olympic Games, and gymnast Dipa Karmakar who finished fourth in Rio 2016 Olympic Games because of subsequent events, but it cannot be denied that they produced iconic moments in Indian sport.
Perhaps, the authors could have included a chapter each for a coach and a sports administrator for their roles in redefining the landscape of Indian sport. Coaches like SA Rahim (he finds generous mention in the chapter on the Indian team’s gold medal in the 1962 Asian Games), Balkrishan Singh, P Gopichand and Sunny Thomas shaped India’s dreams and made them come true.
The contribution of sports officials like Jagmohan Dalmiya, Inderjit Singh Bindra, N Srinivasan and Suresh Kalmadi cannot be overlooked when surveying the history of Indian sport, even if each of these men has courted his share of criticism and perhaps even hate. The story of the evolution of Indian sport may not be complete without recalling such coaches and administrators.
However, while that is for the future, we must appreciate the efforts of the father-son duo for refreshing the memory of those who follow Indian sport as well as for leaving something for the present and coming generations to become familiar with. The glory of the past can be a beacon of inspiration not just for those who love sport but for everyone seeking motivation.
—
We Are The Champions, Akshay Lokapally and Vijay Lokapally, Penguin Books, 271 pages, Rs. 399.
